Odisha’s CHR bags ICMR project to study fluoride content in water

The Centre for Human Reproduction (CHR), run by the Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital (IMSSH) in the Odisha’s capital city, besides successfully enabling childless couples to become proud parents of babies born through in vitro fertilization (IVF) process, has also bagged an ICMR project to conduct research on fluoride content in water in coastal Odisha which is known to affect human reproduction.
CHR’s saga of successes began with a 44-year-old woman who had remained childless for twenty years after marriage. The baby girl, born through IVF last year, celebrated her first birth day at CHR recently. eminent gynaecologist Dr Babita Panda, who heads the Centre, says “The first success was quickly followed by the birth of another baby to a woman who had lost her only 7-year-old son. She had undergone tubectomy earlier and attempts at recanalisation had failed. The woman, who had been married for 12 years, underwent IVF here successfully.”

Two more IVF babies were born at SUM Hospital last month while birth of three more are expected in the next few weeks. The state of the art infertility centre has so far undertaken IVF procedure on 80 couples and over 1,000 cycles of intrauterine insemination (IUI). IVF is a process through which an egg is fertilized by sperm outside the body.

The process involves monitoring and stimulating a woman’s ovulatory process, removing the ovum or egg from the ovaries and allowing the sperm to fertilise the same in a laboratory. For males with absolutely no sperm in semen, surgical removal of sperm and microscopic injection into ovum is also carried out in this centre. The fertilized egg is then implanted in the woman’s uterus aiming at a successful pregnancy, Dr Panda explained.

“The last IVF cycle taken up in September 2014 had yielded encouraging results as well. Six out of 18 women showed positive pregnancy ”, she said adding that the success percentage was at par with reputed centers of the country.

Large number of couples plagued by infertility had been crowding the centre everyday for treatment as IUI & IVF is being done here at very affordable rates compared to other such centres in the state. “The staff here work with a humanitarian touch and enthusiasm, and proper counseling of the couples is the key feature of the entire treatment process,” she said.

The CHR had been recently entrusted with a research project by the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), New Delhi, on estimating the fluoride level in the ground water in the districts of Cuttack, Khordha and Nayagarh. fluoride level in drinking water is known to affect the reproductive system in males. “It will be a two-year research project,” Dr. Panda, who is the principal investigator of the project, said.